MDMC opens Wound and Hyperbaric Center

Thursday, July 28, 2011By Jill Bock

John Fuelle, CST, HT, explains the hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, to Mary Mitchell, left, and Emily Featherston. The chamber is part of Missouri Delta Medical Center's new Wound and Hyperbaric Center in the Bruce Building on Plaza Drive.(Photo by Jill Bock, Staff)

For some patients treating a wound requires much more than a bandage. When a wound just won't heal, special treatment is needed.

In the past, Sikeston doctors would send those patients out of town for care. Now the treatment can now be provided close to home.

Mary Nash Long, APRN-BC, CWCN, serves as the program manager for the new Center, located in the Bruce Building, 201 Plaza Drive. She explained the Center was established in an effort to provide the expertise needed in special wound care in Sikeston.

The Wound and Hyperbaric Center will treat those with wounds such as diabetic, pressure, arterial or venous ulcers, trauma, cellutitis, non-healing surgical wounds or any wound which has not healed in a month.

A variety of treatments from advance wound dressings to wraps to bioengineered tissues are available, she explained. Using the diagnostics available, the staff will evaluate the wound then determine which course to take.

In addition to offering therapies for the non-healing wound, the four also work with patients on lifestyle issues which may cause the wounds. "We look at not only the wound but what is causing it. We want to help them learn the lifestyle they need to embrace to live healthy lives."

For more on this story see the July 28 edition of the Standard Democrat.